Johnny Depp to Collaborate With Nick Cave, Tom Waits on Album of Sea Shanty Songs?

Wait, has everyone but me noticed that Johnny Depp has been a musician...always? I mean, aside from his singing in movies that I slept through because I thought it'd be funny to get drunk beforehand. Maybe this is just news to me.

Admittedly, I'm a little out of touch. I spent the last week listening to Type O Negative and Strawberry Alarm Clock. But in my recent course of this whole, "Shit, I'm writing about music now so I better find out who Will.I.Am is," business, I stumbled across something.

Johnny Depp, along with Pirates of the Carribean director Gore Verbinski and noted music producer Hal Willner, is releasing a collection of pirate-inspired sea shanties featuring work by Nick Cave, Keith Richards, Tom Waits, Michael Gira and Iggy Pop. Oh, and Michael Stipe is doing a duet with Courtney Love. Uh, and sissy-bounce heavyweight Big Freedia is a player.

Big Freedia

And fucking Ricky Jay, a magician who has guest-starred on an episode of the X-Files and who also once authored a book called "Cards as Weapons" (I actually bought this book when I was 10, and am now kicking myself for no longer having it).

Wait, what?

While typically I sit down to write articles with the idea that I'm going to do something constructive by being a shithead and making fun of everything, I can't help but be impressed by the ludicrous nature of this record. And by the fact that it's the second sea shanty album that Depp has had a hand in releasing.

I mean honestly, it's a fairly interesting concept featuring a nice mix of hammy famous dinks, up-their-own-ass alternative rockers and overall weirdos (industrial music mainstay Foetus also appears on the collection). Intrigued, I hunkered down and decided to delve in a little further to see what else Johnny Depp has ventured into, musically. Here are some of the headlines that turned up: